He dreamt of the night they got pregnant. Natalie was reclining on the pink satin sheets—a gift from her to herself, she’d joked on Valentine’s Day the year before. If they were aiming for a cub before he shipped out, she needed to feel regal, queenly, divine; her words, all spoken casually as though these were everyday demands. Charlie would have brought her the ocean if he could, and she knew it; luckily, all she’d ever needed since they’d met eight years before had been him, his heart, and his body. Natalie made him feel complete without implying that he wasn’t whole without her. Her constant strength fed directly into his. Other prides avoided their dynamic because masculine mates felt they wouldn’t feel right showing submission, but it had only ever been a source of tenderness and love between them.

So, that night, he rubbed scented oils down the curve of her back, massaging the plumpness of her ass as she undulated in bliss on the sheets below him. The golden brown of her skin against the pale pink satin was so beautiful that soon he was planting kisses on the backs of her soft thighs and calves, licking and nipping the sensitive skin and relishing her sharp, delirious cries as he slipped a finger into the warm nectar between the folds of her vulva.

“Charlie,” Natalie moaned after his tongue as tasted her, raising her hips slightly as Charlie rose and rested his naked body on hers. His rigid cock nestled between her warm cheeks, and she eagerly ground her ass against him, the slickness of her warm, oiled skin allowing his long shaft to glide between her flesh. “Please, just take me. I’m so fucking wet.”

“Are you?” Charlie teased, pressing his hips against her round ass and slipping one hand beneath her to knead her breast. Natalie cried out as his fingers dug into her soft tissue and thumbed her soft nipple, his breath coming hot and fast against her ear. “Let’s see.”

He pulled back his muscled hips and pressed the head of his cock against Natalie’s slick opening, groaning softly as he submerged his head between her tight walls. She gasped and arched her back, trying to push herself further down his thick, heavy shaft, but Charlie held her ass still with one hand. “You’re wet, alright,” he admitted teasingly, and sank deeper into her soaking wet pussy. “God…you’re so…fucking…wet.”

“Charlie!” Natalie cried, closing her eyes as he slowly sheathed his thick member inside her. Pleasure enveloped his body as her walls wrapped snugly around his cock, and he concentrated on fucking her deep and hard. His mate moaned loudly, urgently pressing her hips back against his fervent strokes as he twisted her hard, puckered nipple. “Fuck me, Charlie, yes! Harder, please!”

“Hold on,” Charlie grunted, watching his cock quickly slip inside her, slick from her hot juices. He felt his lion’s energy uncurl inside him and wander out to mingle with hers, warm and amorous beasts romping together and melding as he slammed against her tender G-spot. His heart was pounding, and already Natalie’s cries were coming high and breathy, her body twitching with the waves of pleasure the motion of his thick cock sent through her, and he held both of her hips as he drove himself against her wildly.

“I love you,” Charlie groaned through gritted teeth. Natalie’s hips were slamming back against his strokes, and one hand was moving frantically under her body, massaging the swollen nub of her clit to stir more pleasure from their passionate romp.

“I love you!” Natalie called back, and her teeth closed over her bottom lip at the same time that her left hand fisted violently on the sheets. “I’m coming! Baby, I’m coming!”

Charlie moaned throatily, thrusting his heavy member between the spasming walls of her pussy and raking his blunt nails down the slick skin of Natalie’s back as he exploded inside of her. Her hips rose emphatically a few more times, and she cried out as he sank against her, covered in sweat. He thrust against her once, twice, a third time, then lay still as her body cooled and grew quiet. For a long time, he lay listening to her heartbeat with one ear pressed against her back, monitoring the racing pulse behind her shoulder blades.

“Charlie?” Natalie said sheepishly. “I think it worked.”

Charlie laughed. “You can’t tell yet,” he said lightly.

“I mean it,” Natalie insisted, her hesitancy falling away into dreamy certainty. “I know this is gonna work. And she’ll be strong. I know it.”

Charlie pressed his lips to her neck and peered at the side of her face. “Okay,” he said. “You’re the boss, after all.”